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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is gene-culture evolution?

2. What does the concept of God do, in Edmund Wilson's account?

3. What does Edmund Wilson say wars are products of?

4. What does natural consilience connect?

5. What do modern technologies give humans the ability to choose?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the consilient view of religious ethics?

2. What is the purpose of the social sciences, and how does Wilson distinguish the social sciences from the physical social sciences?

3. How does art look through the gene-culture evolution paradigm Wilson offers?

4. In what way are epi-genetic rules cross-cultural?

5. What is the sign, in EO Wilson's account, that culture is evolving?

6. What ethical perspective does Wilson call the empiricist view?

7. What is volitional evolution, and what does Wilson say are its effects?

8. How do patterns in mental development connect genes to culture?

9. What does Wilson say is the relationship between human genetics and the development of culture?

10. What is the fundamental assumption behind consilience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Wilson's book begins and ends with a call for better efficiency and use of knowledge in solving problems. To what extent is consilience really Wilson's response to the dangers of industrial modernism? Is consilience really about knowledge and disciplines, or is it about clearing the way for scientists to contribute their experience to solving problems?

Essay Topic 2

What are the reasons that the sciences have resisted the urge to unification expressed in consilience? How are the sciences organized like trades, and how have individuals staked claims on funding or authority that would prevent consilience?

Essay Topic 3

The model for scientific work is based on hypothesis and testing, with each discovery creating the need for further testing and further hypotheses and publications--but Wilson describes scientific knowledge as settled and established. Is Wilson overlooking the uncertainty in scientific work and generalizing the results? Does the scientific method itself foster consilience or undermine it?

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This section contains 779 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample